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The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread® is your source for book recommendations and other literary news.

Ask a Bookseller

Ask a Bookseller is a weekly series where The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. Listen to Ask a Bookseller to find your next favorite book.

Big Books and Bold Ideas

Big Books and Bold Ideas is a weekly series hosted by Kerri Miller every Friday at 11 a.m., featuring conversations about books and other literary ideas. Listen to Big Books and Bold Ideas here.

Sign Up for The Thread® Newsletter

Sign up for The Thread newsletter to get reading recommendations from Kerri Miller and other bookworms around the MPR newsroom. Find reviews for new releases, as well as hidden gems you may have missed.

Talking Volumes

Talking Volumes is an annual event series featuring notable authors in conversation about their new books. Presented by MPR News and The Minnesota Star Tribune. 

New report finds a coordinated rise in attempted book bans

New report finds a coordinated rise in attempted book bans

According to PEN America, a growing number of local political and advocacy groups have focused their attacks on books featuring LGBTQ+ characters and characters of color.
by Andrew Limbong

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Ask a Bookseller: an award-winning graphic novel, soon to be a series

"American Born Chinese" by prolific cartoonist Gene Luen Yang was the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award back in 2006. Disney released a first look at an 8-episode series based on the novel, starring Michelle Yeoh, among other big-name actors.
by Emily Bright

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Talking Volumes: Karen Armstrong on 'Sacred Nature'

The 2022 season of Talking Volumes launched Sept. 14 with Karen Armstrong and MPR News host Kerri Miller returning to the Fitzgerald Theater stage.
by Kerri Miller and Kelly Gordon

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Q&A: Author Boyah J. Farah reflects on being Black in America

Q&A: Author Boyah J. Farah reflects on being Black in America

In his memoir, “America Made Me a Black Man,” Farah tells of what American blackness has meant to him, from his childhood in Somalia to his adolescence in the Northeast — to his return to Somalia.
by Leah Donnella

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Ling Ma's first novel predicted the pandemic. Her new collection goes one step beyond

Ling Ma's first novel predicted the pandemic. Her new collection goes one step beyond

Nothing is just one thing in “Bliss Montage.” Satire swirls into savagery; a gimmicky premise into poignancy. Ma writes with such authority that readers are simply swept along.
by Maureen Corrigan

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'Meet Me Halfway' explores classmates who find out they have the same Colombian father and begin a mission to find him

Mattie Gomez feels directionless after being uprooted from her beloved Minnesota and forced to move in with her new stepfamily in California. So when she meets a girl at her new middle school who looks exactly like her, she’s not sure what to make of it. That’s how award-winning author Anika Fajardo’s new book begins.
by Cathy Wurzer and Britt Aamodt

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From the archives: Karen Armstrong on ‘The Lost Art of Scripture’

From the archives: Karen Armstrong on ‘The Lost Art of Scripture’

The 2022 season of Talking Volumes launches this week with Karen Armstrong and her new book, “Sacred Nature: Restoring our Ancient Bond with the Natural World.” So we thought it only appropriate to make this week’s dip into the archives the last time Armstrong was on the Talking Volumes stage. It was in 2019, when she joined host Kerri Miller to discuss “The Lost Art of Scripture.”
by Kerri Miller and Kelly Gordon

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Ask a Bookseller: a portal into a fantastical world

Think about it: how often do you find a book that has both magical creatures and modern technology?
by Emily Bright

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'If I Survive You' is a sweeping portrait of a family's fight to make it in America

'If I Survive You' is a sweeping portrait of a family's fight to make it in America

Jonathan Escoffery's If I Survive You is an intensively granular, yet panoramic depiction of what it's like to try to make it — or not — in this kaleidoscopic madhouse of a country.
by Maureen Corrigan

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